God, I know that You have begun a work in me.
I'm trusting You to "carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Please keep my eyes open, that I will see what
is Your work and Your will; that I will follow You and You only; that I will obey Your prompting and resist the detours and
roadblocks that Satan will attempt to put in the way. Please give me wisdom and strength for the journey. With thanksgiving
and praise for You. In Jesus' Name, amen.

This Week's Devotional: How Soon Is Now?

I recently finished studying the book of Ecclesiastes (KJV also calls it The Preacher).
A lot of factors drew me to this book, but the main factor can be found in chapter 1, verse 2, "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." NIV

When I first read that I was like, "What? I thought everything had some meaning
and some purpose." Throughout the book it was kind of depressing, because King Solomon, the wisest man ever lived, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit pointed out again and again how meaningless everything was.

Reading this book made me seriously ponder my life and just life in general. If
you really think about it, everything is meaningless without God. A person lives and at the end of life, everything s/he has
worked to gain will be taken away. They will then face God, and be judged. Heaven or Hell. Life or death.

I consider my own life right now and think about all the meaningless crap I've
contaminated it with. I worry about stupid things that are...you guess it, meaningless. I stress out about my grade. "Get
an education" I always hear. Lately I've began to think about the motivation behind my education. Eventually what am I trying
to do? Go to college, why? So I'll make more money. So basically the motivation for my education is money.

Lately I've thought about it. Is making more money really that important? When
I face God on Judgement Day and He asked me how I spent my life, what I did and why, what can I say? I spent my teen years
with my head in the books, made honor roll, got into college. What good will that be? In the eyes of the world it would be
wonderful.

But how many people did I bring to the Lord? How many times did I stop to talk
to someone about Jesus? How much time did I spend reading and studying the Word? How much time did I devote to prayer?

In the midst of everything being meaningless, Solomon gives us some good advice:
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before
the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"- Ecclesiates 12:1
NIV

After reading this book I now realize how important it is to get close to God--NOW.
Not later, not tomorrow, NOW. It's so easy to get sidetracked and put other things before God. But we have to REMEMBER. REMEMBER
OUR CREATOR. It can be easy to remember other things. But how often do we forget God? Or put God last in our schedule?

As many of you know, I'm on strike. I plan on devoting time to developing
a real relationship with God. My grades my slip and my blog might go unattended. (Not to mention I might not do my weekly
devotional). But I seriously need to check my priorities. But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.--Matthew 6:33 KJV

That's a promise. I know if I see God before all of these other things,
that eventually all the other stuff will come. I will get into college without loosing my mind and neglecting my alone time
with God. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind.--Matthew 22:35 KJV

The greatest commandment. God must be first. We've put Him last way too long.

In closing, words from King Solomon: Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man.